1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic mail apparatus which is connected to a signal line for communication and which can perform transmission/reception of a document with a communication partner. More particularly, the invention relates to an electronic mail apparatus which is suitable when operating software for electronic mail in a personal computer, a work station or the like, and to a method for operating such an apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As communication networks have been developed, and personal computers and work stations have been widely used, electronic mail systems operating on a communication network have been widely used. In an earlier stage of electronic mail, only text data have been transmitted and received. Recently, however, a standard named MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) has been provided, and a letter (mail) in which image data and voice data are added to a text can also be transmitted and received. Multipart mail bodies are also included in the standard. If the transmitter determines the size of characters (a font) in a character string of a mail sentence and information relating to the size is included in the mail sentence, the receiver can reproduce characters of the same size based on the size information.
Accordingly, in an electronic mail apparatus which uses such a communication standard for assigning font sizes, if the transmitter forms a main text with a character string of a small font size, the receiver is forced to reproduce the text with a character string of the small font size. For electronic mail, a format for transmitting/receiving a text having voice/sound data added thereto is also provided, so that such a text can be transmitted/received. In this case, also, the sound volume of voice/sound data depends on sound data formed by the transmitter.